Growing Jedi
by WildHorseFantasy
Summary: Obi-Wan and Anakin stumble upon a shocking experiment during the Clone Wars.  And this time, it's personal.
1. Chapter 1

**No copyright infringement is intended. Thanks to George Lucas and all the actors and creators of this galaxy for all the fun. Just a Star Wars fanatics daydreams. Enjoy.**

**_Set_: _somewhere in the galaxy, during the Clone Wars._**

Anakin strode moodily through the heavy green foliage so fast Obi-Wan was hard pressed to keep up.

"Anakin, slow down. If there are anymore battle droids out here, they'll hear you coming. We should at least try and surprise them." Obi-Wan had sensed Anakin's agitation on this mission, but was hard pressed to narrow down the cause. It was just after the anniversary of Geonosis, just after yet another battle where clones en masse lost their lives. And to top it off, their transport had been shot down after they lifted off from a supposedly securely won battlefield.

Anakin paused, hand up and motioned, frowned. "We don't have any troops near here, do we?"

"You know we don't."

"Well, what do you make of that?" He pointed.

Obi-Wan paused, hands landed on hips. His robes were slick with mud and water. The armed booby traps were clearly of Republic army origin. "Odd. And there is something odd in the Force too...do you feel it?"

"Yeah. Maybe if we'll follow these traps to the source, we'll find whatever it is."

Anakin glanced back at Obi-Wan, started forward, frowned and look about again.

"Are you all right? You look awfully pale."

"That...oddness. I really don't like it."

"I don't either but I'm not looking as wobbly as you." Worry filtered into the light blue eyes. "You sure you're okay? You sure you didn't hit your head on landing?" The idea of losing Obi-Wan was a deep seated fear he usually managed to ignore. The advantage of being in battle was there was no time to think, or be scared. No time to think of what could happen. Afterward, now, then he was sometimes shaking with panic inside. Let the galaxy think he was the "Hero with No Fear" and the Jedi think he was calm and detached. Inside, he knew better.

"You call that a landing? That was a crash! I'm fine, just let's get on with it!" Obi-Wan insisted, sharper than usual.

Anakin started off slower. Obi-Wan felt the uncomfortable, violent buzzing in the Force but noted it didn't affect Anakin. "Isn't that bothering you?"

Anakin glanced back. "Yeah but it seems like...almost an echo. Your echo. And something else is familiar too" He was frowning, perturbed.

"My echo?"

"It reminds me of you somehow...mixed with something else."

Obi-Wan braced a hand on Anakin's shoulder, eyes rising to the building in the distance.

"Stang. What's that?"

"Looks vaguely Kaminoan." Anakin noted, concerned by his Master's reaction. Obi-Wan rarely swore.

Something leaped out at him. A figure not quite as tall as them. It swung a heavy bar at them and their lightsabers hummed to life. Anakin spun and kicked the figure. They registered it was human but it gave off the all the force sense of a wild animal. A storm of air blasted at them, air crashing so violently it smashed down branches and leaves, momentarily blinding them. Obi-Wan lashed out a hand, slamming the figure back into the woods. It charged them again.

Force help them it was a just a boy! It looked familiar too. Anakin yelled. "Stop, we aren't here to hurt you." He lifted his saber.

"Anakin wait!"

A vicious blow startled the younger man and he swung his saber, shifted aim for the wrist at the last moment. The wild boy ducked, but fell back into the trees.

A massive explosion flared fire, orange and yellow, blazing a torch of trees into the darkness of the forest. The boy was blasted out, bleeding from the head.

The two jedi gaped at the boy. Alert for more attacks, the two kneeled beside him on the moist grass, even as the pale blue eyes blinked almost shut slowly. He stopped breathing.

"Anakin..." Obi-Wan's voice shook with shock and disbelief. Waves of horror poured out of him.

Anakin, grieved at inadvertently killing a child, sat back with a groan. "He was...insane." Then he noticed the look on Obi-Wan's face. The man was white as snow.

"This boy...this boy...looks exactly like Qui-Gon Jinn. He is...Qui Gon..."


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks for the Reviews. As always, no copyright infringement intended. Just a fan sharing daydreams here, no money gained.**

"...He is...Qui-Gon..."

"What? That's impossible!"

"I've seen holos. This..." Obi-Wan's hand went to his mouth, stroked down his beard.

"He didn't have a kid, did he?"

Obi-Wan jerked his head around, and Anakin realized he'd just suggested Qui-Gon broke the Jedi code. Anakin knew Qui-Gon was more like him than the Jedi Counsel would've liked. But that didn't mean he'd go that far.

"No..." A flicker of doubt flashed on his face.

Anakin hesitated. He normally wouldn't have pressed. But this was urgent.

"You're sure? Maybe it's a family member..."

"I wouldn't know about a family member. But it's definitely not his kid. It looks so like him it could be his clo..." He cut off abruptly, frowning.

"No way. The Republic has all those resources tied up for the clone army." Anakin read his shock and matched it. "CAN you clone a jedi? I mean, the force sensitivity..."

"It was not safe...think about it, all the challenges of growing a clone and then the Force sensitivity thrown in? Oh..."

"Could explain the insanity." Anakin stared in distress at the boy, gently shutting the eyes that were just barely open. So this was a young Qui-Gon. Bad enough to lose Qui-Gon once, but twice?

"Kaminoan." Obi-Wan rose, worried. He still felt quite sick. "We need to investigate."

Anakin rose, heading for the structure cautiously. It was smoothly curved, like a Kaminoan building, but the color matched the surrounding woods, and it sat in the ocean of trees instead of water. The nearest door had been damaged by the fighting and wouldn't open.

After much hunting, they found a hatch covered in foliage. They crept in, following a long curved hallway. The corridor was curved and smooth. But it ended in a dark door, locked solid. Anakin glanced at Obi-Wan, who looked shaky and with one hand balanced discreetly leaned against a wall.

Anakin pulled out his lightsaber and started cutting. "I got this, but it may take awhile. Thick stuff. Obi-Wan?"

"Yes?"

"You...didn't seem too sure about that question."

"Which one?"

"About Qui-Gon having a son." Anakin kept his force sense tuned to his old master. He didn't want to agitate him, but he did hope to distract him from his odd shakiness.

Silence. Anakin looked back. Obi-Wan was frowning at him.

"Let's say...I'm sure he didn't. I'm sure there is only one he'd have been tempted to...and it's none of our business." The last came out snappishly.

"Okay. Just wondered. About your reaction.." Anakin wouldn't push. He of all people couldn't judge someone for keeping secrets. Obi-Wan was never this snappy. Something was definitely wrong. The door finally sizzled open as Anakin's saber hit a circuit. They stepped through, into more darkness. Lights flickered overhead, far too sporadically for normally functioning lighting. "Where do you think they got the DNA?"

Obi-Wan's burst of laughter startled him. He jerked around.

"Good heavens, Anakin, injuries happen on missions. They could've gotten it..." he frowned again, the concerned jedi master. "Zan Arbor. She experimented on him, she would've had tissue samples."

"But she took off with Dooku." Anakin looked ahead. "I can't see him using a clone of Qui-Gon."

"But Qui-Gon was his padawan, as I was Qui-Gon's and you were mine. It's not impossible."

Anakin's blue eyes narrowed, head cocked listening. "I'd expect battle droids to be guarding this place if that was the case. He breathed in the odd, chemical smells of a medical facility, and wished to be back out breathing the thick jungle scents. Those didn't remind him of death. Or of the unnatural lives of the Clones. Another thought he tried hard to outrun. Anakin loathed slavery. But what, exactly, were the Clones? Men, or were they boys? Soldiers or slaves? They chose to serve. They were like Obi-Wan and the Jedi raised in the temple in a sense. But they chose because it's all they knew, all they'd been bred for. Some part of him fretted over that.

Anakin forced the thought down. Whatever happened after the war, he would not, absolutely not, leave Rex and the Clones as perpetual slaves. He'd make sure they could live normal lives. Somehow. He just didn't have time to think how right now. Instead he remarked "That feels weird, thinking that Dooku trained Qui-Gon. They're polar opposites."

"Hmm. Perhaps. You and I are very different too. That is what balances us out my former Padawan."

Anakin smiled, glanced at him. "Opposite sides of the same coin?"

"Something like that. We all have faults. We keep each other in check."

Anakin eyed him, narrowly at that. "So I've taught you? What?"

"Oh, boldness, how to loosen up..."

Anakin smirked, eyes still carefully roving for danger. "And patience beyond mortal kind?"

"Ha! I wasn't going to say it. I did think it, but I wouldn't say it."

They started going downhill and passing rooms overlooking a cloning facility. The Kaminoan design was confirmed now. But these looked unused and empty. Further along they found places where the hall branched. Without looking or consulting each other, they knew instinctively which way to go. They received scent confirmation next. The odor of smoke and ozone, a melted window and a damaged chunking sound from damaged machinery. They peered through the gap.

"Someone wanted out, very badly." Obi-Wan remarked, without his usual urbane attitude. They could both guess who. The whole room was smashed to bits, wall panels ripped and blocking exits.

"Yeah..., but who was trying to stop him? Who or what was he trying to get away from?" Anakin eyed the hole, their were doors within that no doubt led where they wanted to go. Anakin cautiously climbed into the room, jumped down, looked around and jerked back as his robe blazed with fire. "Yow!" He jerked back from the sparking wall conduits around the only unblocked exit. I say we look for an easier way. I don't think we can get through here, he made quite a mess." The shattered consoles in places were fused into an unrecognizable mass from an explosion. He leaped back up and inched back out, wincing as the melted paneling burned him again. He glanced at his Master. "Ready?" He gave Kenobi a concerned glance.

Obi-Wan could feel Anakin's fear for him, overriding the minor pain of injuries incurred in combat. He could sense how uncomfortable his old master was. Him and his overwhelming empathy. His banter was his way of distracting them both. He could sense that buzz echoing and Obi-Wan did not like to think of the implication of what it might be causing it. Obi-Wan tried to ignore the faint tingle and fear he himself was feeling. He had, in a sense, just watched Qui-Gon Jinn die all over again. And in the back of the mind a suspicion arose. Where Qui-Gon had a clone...


	3. Chapter 3

The branching tunnel finally leveled out and began to show damage. Scorch marks on the walls, water leaking from a pipe with blaster damage and sparks leaped along one wall. Keeping to the side, Anakin was almost past the shocky water when Obi-Wan murmered "Anakin.."

He glanced back to see a battle droid arm sticking out of the water. Either it was just the arm or that pool was the tip of a hole in the floor. "Mmmm." He cocked his head, listening. "I don't hear anything. No fighting, no clanking..." It sparked suddenly and they both jumped.

"What did they want with this facility?" Obi-Wan murmured. "Were they guarding or attacking?"

Anakin just shook his head, hand tight around his lightsaber.

Finally, they came to actual life forms and the battle. Clone troops in their death throes lay among shattered droids. Anakin studied them, puzzled. "They aren't wearing trooper armor. It's all patched together mercenary stuff."

"There. A computer terminal. Let's hack in." Obi-Wan went through the left hand door and Anakin followed. The master started working the computer. "Where is your astromech when we need him?"

"On the Resolute with Ahsoka. We were expecting ground combat in heavy vegetation, not computer hacking." Anakin did not care for the way his master looked. He was sweating and shivering slightly. What if this facility manufactured bio toxins and he and Obi-Wan were exposed? What if he picked one up and accidentally took it back to Padme? And what was that weird buzzing in the Force?

"Look at this!"

Obi-Wan had gotten some cams working and was scrolling down an inventory list.

"Definitely a cloning facility."

"But why didn't we know about it? Whoooa." Anakin zoomed into a camera. It revealed a room of shattered tanks and bodies. Some still twitched. And in the far corner, a window was revealed. Inside was..

"A kaminoan!"

"Let's go." They hurtled down the corridor, finding the room and the remains. The kaminoan in the corner was gasping, held in the air by the Force. The boy before it was probably five, but looked ten, if the Kaminoan was using the same methods as for the Clone army. What froze them both in their tracks was who the boy was.

In peripheral vision, other recognizable individuals, all human, lay dead on the floor, including more dead young Qui-Gons, Obi-Wan's and a few others. Anakin shuddered inwardly. The buzzing was echoing powerfully now and the boy charged at Obi-Wan, for the boy was Obi-Wan, a younger version, clearly. He lashed out with the Force, hurdling broken tanks, pipes and objects at the original Kenobi. Anakin dove between them, calling on all his massive strength in the Force to divert it from his stunned mentor.

"Stop! I don't want to hurt you!" Anakin knew it was futile. The boy was wild as the one up top. What's more, his very existence seemed to be hurting his Master, and vice versa. Something in the Force, in their mutual midichlorians seemed to reject each other, like opposing magnets.

Obi-Wan the original started to creep around toward the wounded Kaminoan. He knelt and got a grip. Lifting it, he carried it to the door. Anakin, reading his strategy, kept between him and the boy. Force, the boy was strong in his wildness. Untrained, but powerful as a wild rampaging rancor. Insanity lit those blue eyes.

Then the boy leaped up, high, so high, right over Anakin, slamming into his Master. "No!" Anakin's warning was drowned out by the boy's scream.

The boy had grabbed Obi-Wan's lightsaber while he held the Kaminoan in one had and forced the door with the other. He ignited the blue blade and swung.

Anakin's own blue blade slammed through the boy. He collapsed, dead. General Kenobi collapsed through the door with the Kaminoan, staring. Anakin gaped down too, dismayed on levels he didn't care to ponder. "There wasn't room, to just disarm..."

"I know." Obi-Wan said. "That buzzing is gone..."

"Um.." Anakin picked up Obi-Wan's lightsaber and handed it back. "This weapon is your life you know..." He threw the old instructor's lecture back at him. He meant in as the gruesome, battlefield humor that soldiers use to keep themselves from screaming or going mad. It was not entirely successful. It just reminded him...the boy was Obi-Wan. A different Obi-Wan, but still on some level, the same.

"I always said you'd be the death of me." Obi-Wan said, in the same vein. But Anakin could sensed how disturbed he was too.


	4. Chapter 4

The kaminoan was dying. It wheezed oddly and they both sensed that rescue would not arrive in time. Their battlefield medicine was not adequate, even with a whole facility of medical equipment.

"Tell us, what were you doing here?" Kenobi asked.

Anakin glanced up at what to him, seemed a foolish question.

"Experimenting. We had once thought a jedi would make a fine clone army, but were overruled. Still, the idea was intriguing. Surely for special units, it would make for a fine idea. And since the jedi were few and bear no children, someday it may shore up their ranks."

Obi-Wan winced at this blatant disregard for jedi methodology and then glanced up at Anakin. There was some flash of pain from him, of longing about that comment about family. He knew how important family was to Anakin. Family. Padme. Obi-Wan closed his eyes, forcing himself back into the moment. He suspected that in spite of his pleas and warnings, it went deeper than friendship and had suspected ever since that dinner with Bail Organa to discuss Lanteeb. And what could he do if it was? Turn him in, and risk having him tossed out of the Order? He needed that structure, even if sometimes it was too tight a fit. He needed the guidance, maybe even the challenge of figuring out where the lines were in relation to where he needed to be. Without the Order, he was out of their protection, both from his own personal challenges and all the enemies he'd made as one of them.

Turning his gaze back to the Kaminoan he pointed out to the dying creature "Jedi would not welcome..." he hesitated, aware of Anakin's intense gaze..."these methods of increasing our numbers. Were you sanctioned?"

"By the Senate or the Order, no. The Kaminoan wheezed. The head against the wall, wobbled. There was another." It shuddered then, head sagged and rolled to the side.

"Blast it!" Anakin snarled. "I bet there is nothing in the databanks to prove who it was either.

Obi-Wan gently settled the creature on the floor and rose. " Let's look now. Get Ahsoka here with R2. Don't send for the Clones, their battered enough anyway."

Anakin eyed him warily. "You sound like you don't trust them. We're talking Rex and Cody here. I trust them with my life."

"I trust them to follow orders. And if some highly placed person is behind this, they may be able to give them orders to destroy the evidence, without them even realizing they are hindering us."

"Oh." Anakin blinked at this.

It was well over a day later by the time they confirmed that Anakin's guess was correct. No information on the mysterious patron. But someone must've had second thoughts.

"It looks like there was a riot in the dorm part of the facility. They just went crazy. There was a brief transmission...we don't know who it went to."

Artoo whistled and tweeted. "Yeah. And then, the battle droids came in." Ahsoka glanced at the display and translated for the others.

"The bad news is...a ship did take off. Right when your ship was shot down."

"That must be who shot at us. We know there weren't any droids left on the ground."

Obi-Wan looked up, appalled. "If they are carrying data on these experiments...we have got to track them down."

Ahsoka looked fascinated at the data. "We can send it to the temple and have it analyzed. But it's going to take some time to piece together what little info we have."

Obi-Wan, rather awkwardly, was taking tissue samples from his other selves. Anakin was planting charges. Ahsoka put away the datapad and frowned at them.

"Are we sure this is a good idea? It seems kind of...disrespectful." Ahsoka frowned at the grim men.

"Snips, we haven't got time to bury them or burn them as the custom is." His blond hair was tousled and sweaty and his eyes were sad. Ahsoka noticed how gently he cradled the bodies he had to move, as if he knew everyone personally. In a way, he did. And we can't leave them here..."

"This research must not get out. Scientific study of the Jedi's abilities is very dangerous outside the Order. Far too prone to misuse." Obi-Wan put in.

They finished their sad task, trekked some miles through the jungle and then hit the switch. The place imploded in flames.

"I'm surprised there weren't any of you, Master. You're a one man army yourself sometimes." Ahsoka remarked. Anakin stopped cold and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. Obi-Wan turned and stared at her too, mouth hanging open. "What?" She frowned.

"I don't always know what to do with one Skywalker. What in the Force would we do with more?" Obi-Wan shook his head, eyes wide.

Anakin smirked. "Drive the council crazy?"

"You do plenty of that without more of you. The idea of you cloned or reproduced is terrifying."

Anakin's light banter shut down and he strode through the jungle toward the pick up ship. Ahoska looked startled.

"You think I'd make a bad parent?" Anakin sounded a touch peeved.

"I did not say that. If you can handle a padawan, you could handle parenthood."

That appeased his former padawan a little. "It's just...not allowed." Kenobi watched Anakin carefully. This subject was dangerously sensitive with him.

"Did you ever think about what it would be like to have kids?" Ahsoka interjected, her head tails blushing.

It was a personal question to ask a Master like Obi-Wan, and he instantly remembered why Anakin called her Snips.

"Sorry."

But Anakin was glancing at her gratefully and he fired a salvo too. "Well, I'm not. I want to know too."

Obi-Wan sighed. Anakin would not let this go, he knew. "I won't lie and say I've never been tempted by a normal non jedi relationship with a female. But it never got to the point of considering children."

Ahsoka smiled. "You just said, if you can handle a padawan, you could handle kids. You handled Anakin Skywalker...didn't you?"

Did I? Obi-Wan wondered. Obi-Wan had to respond, "Having survived one Anakin I could probably survive a whole tribe of my own kids."

Anakin's brows rose doubtfully at this, as the whine of approaching engines told them the LAART/i approached.


	5. Chapter 5

**Epilogue**

The ship did not take them home to Coruscant, but toward another battle. And they still waited in the meantime to see if any leads would turn up on the mysterious attacker and jedi cloner. Anakin sat in his quarters and finished the holo with his last brief message to Padme sadly. They couldn't say much for fear of intercept by either side. But she wanted kids and a normal family, he knew. "She gave up so much for me, Artoo." He glanced at the small droid who was tinkering with a damaged sensor piece off his starfighter. The droid had brought it from the hanger, hanging out with Anakin in the sparse quarters rather than work in the crowded hanger. He wondered if Padme had told the droid to look after him when she gave brought it to him. He smiled. Probably. Not that Artoo needed telling.

His thoughts drifted. Someday, somehow though, he'd give to her as much as she gave to him. He'd give her those kids. He'd probably have to give up the Order, unless he ran out and joined Djinn Altis. But then, she'd given up so much already. It had to be his turn eventually. He wanted to give to her. She deserved everything. And he wanted kids. To be as good to them as Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon had been to him. Ironic, that.

The door buzzed. "Hey Skyguy! You promised me some lightsaber practice!"

Anakin glanced up in annoyance. Artoo let out a few chortling beeps. "Yes I know I did, Artoo."

And if training a padawan was like raising a kid, it would probably be good practice to keep his promise. Ahsoka deserved that.

His voice rose. "Coming Snips." Anakin snatched up his lightsaber and went out the door to keep his promise.

* The End ...For Now...*

**story notes for the curious: **

chapter 3:

"This weapon is your life" is from Attack of the Clones, lecture to Anakin when he dropped his lightsaber while chasing the bounty hunter.

The "You'll be the death of me" comment is from Attack of the Clones, same lecture.

_Expanded Universe references:_

The buzzing in the Force when a Jedi is cloned idea comes from the Expanded Universe: Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy. The clones created with Spaarti cylinders had it, and the clone of Jorus C'baoth was unstable because of it.

Also the idea of cloning Jedi comes from the Dark Empire and Empire's End Comics.

Zan Arbor comes from the Jedi Apprentice and Jedi Quest series by Jude Watson.

Djinn Altis comes from Children of the Jedi by B. Hambly and Clone Wars: No Prisoners by Karen Traviss

The planet Lanteeb and dinner with Organa and Padme is mentioned in The Clone Wars: Gambit: Stealth and Siege by Karen Miller.


End file.
